I found this hadith in Sunan Abu Dawud, and saw it quoted on IslamQA and other Muslim sites.

I know that unlike Bukhari and Muslim, Abu Dawud contains things that Muhammad said, as well as things he didn't say.

So I was wondering if this is a true hadith.(1) Narrated Al-Bara' ibn Azib: We went
out with the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) accompanying the bier
of a man of the Ansar. When we reached his grave,
it was not yet dug. So the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) sat
down and we also sat down around him as if birds were over our heads. He
had in his hand a stick with which he was scratching the ground. He
then raised his head and said: Seek refuge with Allah from the
punishment in the grave. He said it
twice or thrice. The version of Jabir adds here: He hears the beat of
their sandals when they go back, and at that moment he is asked: O so
and so! Who is your Lord, what is your religion, and who is your
Prophet? Hannad's version says: Two angels will come to him, make him
sit up and ask him: Who is your Lord? He will reply: My Lord is Allah.
They will ask him: What is your religion? He will reply: My religion is
Islam. They will ask him: What is your opinion about the man who was
sent on a mission among you? He will reply: He is the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him). They will ask: Who made you aware of this? He will
reply: I read Allah's Book, believed in it, and considered it true;
which is verified by Allah's words: "Allah's Book, believed in it, and
considered it true, which is verified by Allah's words: "Allah
establishes those who believe with the word that stands firm in this
world and the next." The agreed version reads: Then a crier will call
from Heaven: My servant has spoken the truth, so spread a bed for him
from Paradise, clothe him from Paradise, and open a door for him into
Paradise. So some of its air and perfume will come to him, and a space
will be made for him as far as the eye can see. He also mentioned the
death of the infidel, saying: His spirit will be restored to his body,
two angels will come to him, make him sit up and ask him: Who is your
Lord? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. They will ask him: What
is your religion? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. They will
ask: Who was the man who was sent on a mission among you? He will reply:
Alas, alas! I do not know. Then a crier will call from Heaven: He has
lied, so spread a bed for him from Hell, clothe him from Hell, and open
for him a door into Hell. Then some of its heat and pestilential wind
will come to him, and his grave will be compressed, so that his ribs
will be crushed together. Jabir's version adds: One who is blind and
dumb will then be placed in charge of him, having a sledge-hammer such
that if a mountain were struck with it, it would become dust. He will
give him a blow with it which will be heard by everything between the
east and the west except by men and jinn, and he will become dust. Then
his spirit will be restored to him.
(Book #40, Hadith #4735)

After speaking to a good Muslim friend of mine and reading the fatwas on IslamWeb and IslamQA, it seems that the Abu Dawud hadith is genuine.

Muhammad discussed the situation of the non-Muslim at the time of death.After describing how the soul of a Muslim will be returned to his body and he answers the questions posed by the angels correctly, his grave will be made wide, and he will smell the sweet fragrance of Paradise.

I would like to focus on the situation of the non-Muslim, or "infidel".

He also mentioned the
death of the infidel, saying: His spirit will be restored to his body,
two angels will come to him, make him sit up and ask him: Who is your
Lord? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. They will ask him: What
is your religion? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. They will
ask: Who was the man who was sent on a mission among you? He will reply:
Alas, alas! I do not know. Then a crier will call from Heaven: He has
lied, so spread a bed for him from Hell, clothe him from Hell, and open
for him a door into Hell. Then some of its heat and pestilential wind
will come to him, and his grave will be compressed, so that his ribs
will be crushed together. Jabir's version adds: One who is blind and
dumb will then be placed in charge of him, having a sledge-hammer such
that if a mountain were struck with it, it would become dust. He will
give him a blow with it which will be heard by everything between the
east and the west except by men and jinn, and he will become dust. Then
his spirit will be restored to him.
(Book #40, Hadith #4735)

The hadith states that the grave will compress and that the ribs of the non-Muslim will be crushed together. Evidently, this is happening not only to the soul, but also to the body. Fatwas on IslamQA and IslamWeb confirm that punishment (and reward) happens to both body and soul.

Also, the squeezing in the grave, if the fatwa below is accurately quoting Muhammad, happens to every single person. For non-Muslims, it continues indefinitely, until they are resurrected and judged, and then afterwards sent to hell.

Fatwa No : 18370

None escapes the squeeze of the grave

Fatwa Date : Thul-Qi'dah 1, 1428 / 11-11-2007

Question

Is it right that no person will escape the squeeze of the grave, even the righteous believers?

Answer

All
perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that
there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad , is His slave and messenger.

No one escapes the squeeze of the grave: young or old, wrongdoer or righteous, as indicated in many narrations.

On the authority of Ibn ‘Umar the Prophet , stated that even Sa‘d Ibn Mu‘aath
to whose death the Throne of Allaah shook, and for whom the gates of
the heavens opened and whose funeral was witnessed by 70 thousand
angels, was squeezed by the grave and then released. [An-Nasaa'i] On the authority of Abu Ayyoob the Prophet , having buried a young boy said that had anyone escaped the squeeze of the grave, it would have been that boy. [At-Tabaraani] It is known that a young by does not sin (i.e. he is not accounted for what he does).

Ar-Ramli stated that no
one escapes the squeeze of the grave, whether righteous or wrongdoer,
but the difference between a Muslim and a non-Muslim is the continuity
of the squeeze - for a Muslim this happens only once when the person
first enters the grave, then afterwards the grave loosens again, but a
non-Muslim continually experiences this. Moreover, Muslims vary in their
experience according to their deeds.

The problem I see with this teaching, is that obviously, a grave will not compress and crush the ribs of any corpse.

The photo below is of the enbalmed corpse of Vladimir Lenin, one of the most infamous atheists and mass murderers that the world had known in the 20th century. His grave is no more or less spacious than it was when he was embalmed. I am pretty certain his ribs have not been crushed in any way.

The photo below is of the famous exhibit, "Body Worlds" The exhibits are comprised of skeletons of people who donated their bodies to science. They are very much dead, and I am pretty sure that not all of them were Muslim. We can see easily that the ribs of this skeleton are very much intact and have not interlocked. The grave isn't closing in on it either. The same is true of every other skeleton in this exhibit.

When I finished the Qur'an reading first time I noticed that the very famous punishment of the grave is absent. I asked few people online as well as in person to point it out where it is just in case I missed it. But so far it is hadith origin.

There is only one possible candidate, it is somewhere in Chapter 23 I think.

When I finished the Qur'an reading first time I noticed that the very famous punishment of the grave is absent. I asked few people online as well as in person to point it out where it is just in case I missed it. But so far it is hadith origin.

There is only one possible candidate, it is somewhere in Chapter 23 I think.

Salaam.

Alaikum Salaam, and thank you for the response.

I can see why the Quran's author would leave this teaching absent. It is completely false, and this is very to prove.

However, if according to the Quran, Muhammad is God's prophet and his teachings are from God, when he said such things it is obvious God did not guide him to say that. So where was he getting it from?

The hadith is referring to Barzakh, which is the state of existence in between the earthly life and the afterlife. The physical rules of earthly existence do not apply. Therefore, even if a body was cremated, it would still suffer the punishment. As IslamWeb points out in another fatwa:

"It
should be emphasized that the torture of the grave refers to that of
Barzakh. Therefore, every deceased person that deserves to be punished,
will indeed experience this except for those whom Allaah The Almighty
forgives. This takes place regardless of whether or not he is buried.
Even if a person were eaten by carnivorous animals or burned to ashes
and thrown into the air or drowned in the sea, both his soul and body
will experience the punishment in the same way as the person who is
buried."

"To us it appears
as though nothing is happening to the body, but in the life of Al-Barzakh
the grave is being compressed or widened and the body is being tormented
or furnished in the clothes from Paradise, and so on and so forth."

http://www.iris.org.nz/death_barzakh.php

Hence, the argument that we cannot physically observe the ribs of a corpse being compressed is at best childish, since we are talking about a different state of existence altogether. It is a matter of the unseen (ghaib). Furthermore, it is obvious to anyone that a human body generally decays in the grave, leaving only bones and sometimes even less and that graves do not expand or compress. That is not rocket science! But, it again needs to be pointed out that what we are observing is with regards to this life, not the Barzakh.

As for the erroneous claim that the concept of the punishment of the grave is not found in the Quran, the best answer to the person making that argument is that perhaps you should re-read the Quran, because there are numerous references to it! For example, the Quran speaks on a number of occasions about how the angels take the soul of an unbeliever. These verses describe the punishment the person will undergo:

"Who can be more wicked than one who inventeth a lie against Allah, or
saith, "I have received inspiration," when he hath received none, or
(again) who saith, "I can reveal the like of what Allah hath revealed"?
If thou couldst but see how the wicked (do fare) in the flood of
confusion at death! - the angels stretch forth their hands,
(saying),"Yield up your souls: this day shall ye receive your reward,- a
penalty of shame, for that ye used to tell lies against Allah, and
scornfully to reject of His signs!"" (6:93)

"If thou couldst see, when the angels take the souls of the Unbelievers
(at death), (How) they smite their faces and their backs, (saying):
"Taste the penalty of the blazing Fire-" (8:50)

"But how (will it be) when the angels take their souls at death, and smite their faces and their backs?" (47:27)

What are these verses referring to if not the punishment of the grave?

And Allah knows best!

Say: "Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds. (Surat al-Anaam: 162)

The hadith is referring to Barzakh, which is the state of existence in between the earthly life and the afterlife. The physical rules of earthly existence do not apply. Therefore, even if a body was cremated, it would still suffer the punishment. As IslamWeb points out in another fatwa:

"It
should be emphasized that the torture of the grave refers to that of
Barzakh. Therefore, every deceased person that deserves to be punished,
will indeed experience this except for those whom Allaah The Almighty
forgives. This takes place regardless of whether or not he is buried.
Even if a person were eaten by carnivorous animals or burned to ashes
and thrown into the air or drowned in the sea, both his soul and body
will experience the punishment in the same way as the person who is
buried."

"To us it appears
as though nothing is happening to the body, but in the life of Al-Barzakh
the grave is being compressed or widened and the body is being tormented
or furnished in the clothes from Paradise, and so on and so forth."

http://www.iris.org.nz/death_barzakh.php

Hence, the argument that we cannot physically observe the ribs of a corpse being compressed is at best childish, since we are talking about a different state of existence altogether. It is a matter of the unseen (ghaib). Furthermore, it is obvious to anyone that a human body generally decays in the grave, leaving only bones and sometimes even less and that graves do not expand or compress. That is not rocket science! But, it again needs to be pointed out that what we are observing is with regards to this life, not the Barzakh.

Assalamu Alaikum, Islamispeace.

The Islamweb fatwa you cited does not state that physical rules to not apply to the body. It states that a person will experience the torment of the grave regardless if s/he is buried or cremated or eaten. Just because a body is cremated or ends up in the belly (and consequently excretement) of a hyaena does not mean it is not in the earth.

IRIS states that the living and dead are in a separate world, but states very clearly that their bodies are both being rewarded and punished in the grave, even if we can't see this happening.

Whilst there have been many
theories posed as to where the souls of the people in Al-Barzakh are, the
following points are those based on authentic evidence from the Qur'an and
the Sunnah (practices and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)).

In the case of the pious
believers (as opposed to the disobedient Muslims), their souls are in
Paradise and their bodies are in the grave. In this way the person
is able to experience the most pleasure since the soul experiences the
incomparable bliss of paradise, whilst the body is also experiencing
pleasure in the grave through things such as smelling the fragrance of
Paradise, sleeping the sleep of a bridegroom and having a wide and
spacious grave. Sometimes however, the soul of the pious believer is
connected with the body in the grave so that it they experience some
pleasure together. The souls of the pious believers are free to roam and
communicate with the souls of other pious believers in Al-Barzakh.

In the case of the
disbelievers, the soul and the body are both confined to the grave and it
is there that both the body and the soul undergo the torment of the grave
commensurate with the sins they committed in the previous life.

http://www.iris.org.nz/death_barzakh.php

Also, notice that the hadith refers to not only the ribs of the corpse being squeezed together, but the grave itself compressing and widening. Does the grave enter into the other existence also?

Also, if the body is in a different existence, what would be the point of the soul returning to it, while it is in the grave?

Finally, in this hadith, Muhammad mentioned the body being put in the grave, and the grave being widened. If "the grave" is somehow part of a different dimension, does that mean that the companions are lowering the body into a different world also?

(57) Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle said, "When (Allah's) slave is put in his graveand his companions return and he even hears their footsteps, two angels
come to him and make him sit and ask, 'What did you use to say about
this man (i.e. Muhammad)?' The faithful Believer will say, 'I testify
that he is Allah's slave and His Apostle.' Then they will say to him,
'Look at your place in the Hell Fire; Allah has given you a place in
Paradise instead of it.' So he will see both his places." (Qatada said,
"We were informed that his grave
would be made spacious." Then Qatada went back to the narration of Anas
who said;) Whereas a hypocrite or a non-believer will be asked, "What
did you use to say about this man." He will reply, "I do not know; but I
used to say what the people used to say." So they will say to him,
"Neither did you know nor did you take the guidance (by reciting the
Quran)." Then he will be hit with iron hammers once, that he will send
such a cry as everything near to him will hear, except Jinns and human
beings. (See Hadith No. 422).
(Book #23, Hadith #456)

Lastly, it is interesting to notice that both articles on Islamweb and IRIS that you cited, when discussing the issues we are debating, do not quote Muhammad. The article on IRIS does not quote him, or even any scholar, for that matter.

The article on IslamWeb quotes a scholar who lived in the 13th century, who said that the body is punished or rewarded whether or not it was buried. Nothing there about the body not being physically punished.

Muhammad stated clearly that the grave of the disbeliever will become compressed and that his ribs will come together. He stated that this, and other tortures, will happen after the soul returns to the body.

I would be curious to see a hadith from Muhammad stating that when the body in the grave that is being tormented, is being tormented in another world or dimension. I only have access to Sunan Abu Dawud, Bukhari, Muslim and Malik's Muwatta. I searched them all, and was unable to find anything. Interestingly, I was also unable to find the word "barzakh".

If you could provide me any evidence from Muhammad's words that the bodies being tormented in the grave are being tormented in a different world or dimension, I would be grateful.

Based on what I have seen of his words, he stated that the graves of believers and unbelievers will expand or compress, and that the ribs of the unbelievers will be crushed. He also made it very clear that all this will happen after the soul is returned to the body. There is no mention whatsoever of the body not being physically subjected to the torments or of being in a "different state of existence". I see only articles by scholars who say this, scholars who live in the 20th century and are not quoting Muhammad, but other scholars who lived centuries after him.

Lastly, you wrote:

Furthermore, it is obvious to
anyone that a human body generally decays in the grave, leaving only
bones and sometimes even less and that graves do not expand or
compress.

I am glad you also see that graves do not expand or compress. We have nothing from Muhammad's teachings suggesting he did not believe this, and everything suggesting that he did.

However, your statement raised another interesting topic. You said that the human body generally decays in the grave, leaving only bones and sometimes even less. This is an interesting observation, because Muhammad stated there is a part of the body that will never decay, namely, the spinal chord. Allegedly, from it, God will reconstitute the person's body on the day of judgement.Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as
saying: Between the two blowiings of the trumpet (there would be an
interval of forty). They said: Abu Huraira, do you mean forty days? He
said: I cannot say anything. They said: Do you mean fortv months? He
said: I cannot say anything They said: Do you mean forty years? He said:
I cannot say anything. Then Allah would cause the water to, descend
from the sky and they (people) will sprout like vegetable The only thing
in a man which would not decay would be one bone (spinal chord) from
which the whole frame would be reconstituted on the Day of Resurrection.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as say-
ing: The earth would consume every son of Adam except his spinal chord
from which his body would be reconstituted (on the Day of Resurrection).

Abu Huraira reported so many ahadith from Allah's Apostle (may peace be
upon him) and amongst these one was this that Allah's Messenger (may
peace be upon him) said: There is a bone in the human being which the
earth would never consume and it is from this that new bodies would be
reconstituted (on the Day of Resurrection). They said: Allah's
Messenger, which bone is that? Thereupon he said: It is the spinal bone.

http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=041&translator=2&start=172&number=7052Interestingly, some of the hadiths use the term "tail bone" and others "spinal chord". I am going to make the assumption that what is being referred to is the coccyx, as many Muslim sites are saying this to be the case. According to Muhammad, every dead person is decayed by the earth, but what remains is her/her tailbone.

Muhammad stated that when every son of Adam (or person) dies, the earth will dissolve everything of the body but the tailbone. The tailbone is one of the bones in the human body that is least likely to dissolve. The website "Quran and Science" does a great job pointing this out.http://quranandscience.com/sunnah-a-science/123--the-coccyx.html

It claims that the coccyx does not get dissolved or eaten away by the earth. Often, it remains when all other parts of the body have been dissolved/acidified.

However, at other times, it certainly doesn't.

We know that in the sea, whale skeletons are eaten by worms, who dissolve them using acids.

The wispy worms may significantly speed up the whales’ decomposition,
Katz said. Researchers previously thought it took decades for a skeleton
to break down in the ocean, she said, but the worms consume it in less
than a decade.

Obviously, if this happens to a whale skeleton at sea, it also happens to human skeletons. The sons of Adam who drowned in the sea will not have spinal chords from which their bodies will be reconstituted.

If we want to examine bodies that are buried in the earth, we will also see that often the whole skeleton, not only the spinal chord, is eaten away.

The ship at Sutton Hoo is believed to have contained a body of a king, who was buried sometime in the Middle Ages. There was left nothing of either his body or skeleton, because the acidic acid dissolved all of it.http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/w/who_was_buried_at_sutton_hoo.aspx

No trace of a body was found during the 1939
excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial.

Analyses of soil samples for residual phosphate (a chemical left
behind when a human or animal body has completely decayed away),
taken in 1967 during the British Museum's excavations, support the
idea that a body was originally placed in the burial chamber, but
that this had totally decayed in the highly acidic conditions at
the bottom of the ship.

In 2011, the remains of a young boy who died on the Titanic and was subsequently buried, were exhumed so he could be recognized. He was initially incorrectly identified as being Finnish. No spinal chord remained, but instead there was a fragment of an armbone, and teeth.

Following exhumation of the grave in 2001, which produced in a
2.4-inch-long fragment of an arm bone and three teeth, Parr and
colleagues concluded that the child was Eino Viljami Panula, a
13-month-old Finnish infant who drowned with his parents in the
disaster.

After speaking to a good Muslim friend of mine and reading the fatwas on IslamWeb and IslamQA, it seems that the Abu Dawud hadith is genuine.

Muhammad discussed the situation of the non-Muslim at the time of death.After describing how the soul of a Muslim will be returned to his body and he answers the questions posed by the angels correctly, his grave will be made wide, and he will smell the sweet fragrance of Paradise.

I would like to focus on the situation of the non-Muslim, or "infidel".

He also mentioned the death of the infidel, saying: His spirit will be restored to his body, two angels will come to him, make him sit up and ask him: Who is your Lord? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. They will ask him: What is your religion? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. They will ask: Who was the man who was sent on a mission among you? He will reply: Alas, alas! I do not know. Then a crier will call from Heaven: He has lied, so spread a bed for him from Hell, clothe him from Hell, and open for him a door into Hell. Then some of its heat and pestilential wind will come to him, and his grave will be compressed, so that his ribs will be crushed together. Jabir's version adds: One who is blind and dumb will then be placed in charge of him, having a sledge-hammer such that if a mountain were struck with it, it would become dust. He will give him a blow with it which will be heard by everything between the east and the west except by men and jinn, and he will become dust. Then his spirit will be restored to him. (Book #40, Hadith #4735)

The hadith states that the grave will compress and that the ribs of the non-Muslim will be crushed together. Evidently, this is happening not only to the soul, but also to the body. Fatwas on IslamQA and IslamWeb confirm that punishment (and reward) happens to both body and soul.

Also, the squeezing in the grave, if the fatwa below is accurately quoting Muhammad, happens to every single person. For non-Muslims, it continues indefinitely, until they are resurrected and judged, and then afterwards sent to hell.

Fatwa No : 18370

None escapes the squeeze of the grave

Fatwa Date : Thul-Qi'dah 1, 1428 / 11-11-2007

Question

Is it right that no person will escape the squeeze of the grave, even the righteous believers?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad , is His slave and messenger.

No one escapes the squeeze of the grave: young or old, wrongdoer or righteous, as indicated in many narrations.

On the authority of Ibn ‘Umar the Prophet , stated that even Sa‘d Ibn Mu‘aath to whose death the Throne of Allaah shook, and for whom the gates of the heavens opened and whose funeral was witnessed by 70 thousand angels, was squeezed by the grave and then released. [An-Nasaa'i] On the authority of Abu Ayyoob the Prophet , having buried a young boy said that had anyone escaped the squeeze of the grave, it would have been that boy. [At-Tabaraani] It is known that a young by does not sin (i.e. he is not accounted for what he does).

Ar-Ramli stated that no one escapes the squeeze of the grave, whether righteous or wrongdoer, but the difference between a Muslim and a non-Muslim is the continuity of the squeeze - for a Muslim this happens only once when the person first enters the grave, then afterwards the grave loosens again, but a non-Muslim continually experiences this. Moreover, Muslims vary in their experience according to their deeds.

The problem I see with this teaching, is that obviously, a grave will not compress and crush the ribs of any corpse.

The photo below is of the enbalmed corpse of Vladimir Lenin, one of the most infamous atheists and mass murderers that the world had known in the 20th century. His grave is no more or less spacious than it was when he was embalmed. I am pretty certain his ribs have not been crushed in any way.

The photo below is of the famous exhibit, "Body Worlds" The exhibits are comprised of skeletons of people who donated their bodies to science. They are very much dead, and I am pretty sure that not all of them were Muslim. We can see easily that the ribs of this skeleton are very much intact and have not interlocked. The grave isn't closing in on it either. The same is true of every other skeleton in this exhibit.

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